Best of Cleveland 2012

Arts & Entertainment

Best Club DJ

DJ E-V

E-V has been behind some of the best mixtapes to come out of our city during the past few years, including Bitch I'm From Cleveland and a collaboration that resulted in Kid Cudi's Dat Kid From Cleveland. He also backed Mike Posner on tour. But E-V is at his best spinning for weekend crowds at clubs stuffed with hot, sweaty bodies. Best of all, there's never a dead spot in his sets.

For more than a dozen years, more than 20 Tremont businesses open their doors on the second Friday of every month for a stroll that features some of the city's best artists showing off their work. Galleries and shops display (and sell) everything from paintings to jewelry to glasswork. Neighborhood bars and restaurants also get in on the action — and a little lubrication never hurts a neighborhood arts soirée.

Last September, 45,000 people stepped inside the Veterans Memorial Bridge to browse video installations, artwork, and take in the music of more than 50 bands. The two-day event has grown every year since its 2004 debut, piling more art, more culture, and more music into its programming along the way. It's also become one of the city's most buzzed-about, can't-miss events, attracting everyone from twentysomething hipsters to old-school arts patrons.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is like a history of the world contained in a spacious, newly renovated venue that gives the classic works all the space they need. You could devote a whole day to walking the halls and checking out everything from modern art to a golf-ball-sized gem that used to hang from the neck of an Egyptian princess. Best of all, general admission to the permanent collection is totally free.

The Cedar Lee is often the only place in town where you can see the year's best indie movies. It's a welcome break from the monotony and sensory overkill of the multiplex. Best of all, its twice-monthly Late Shift cult-movie series features midnight screenings of everything from The Terminator to Trainspotting.

In the past year alone, this troupe of hardworking pros has staged everything from a one-woman show about being a black mother, wife, and artist in America to a full-cast production of a play that ties together slave plantations, the Holocaust, and homosexuality (!). And every single one rings with deep care for the material. No one in town puts more time into making you think as they're entertaining you.